WASHINGTON (AP) — A Justice Department investigation found sweeping patterns of racial bias within the Ferguson, Missouri, police department, with officers routinely discriminating against blacks by using excessive force, issuing petty citations and making baseless traffic stops, according to law enforcement officials familiar with its findings.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bitterly admitting defeat, the Republican-controlled Congress sent legislation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without any of the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution to slap sanctions on South Sudan's warring factions, ratcheting up pressure as a deadline loomed to reach a peace deal. Drafted by the United States, the resolution sets up a sanctions committee which would submit to the council the names of those responsible for blocking peace efforts, and who should be punished with a global travel ban and assets freeze. Regional mediators have given South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar until Thursday to reach a final deal to end 14 months of war that have killed tens of thousands of people.

A Ukrainian airforce pilot who has been on hunger strike in a Russian jail for 81 days might be transferred to a civilian hospital if her health deteriorates, the prison service said Tuesday. The statement by Russia's prison service raised the possibility of Nadia Savchenko, who is also a member of the Ukraine parliament, being transferred from the hospital of a Moscow prison where she has been held for nearly nine months. Speaking later in the day, one of her lawyers said she may stop the hunger strike if her health sharply worsens. She denies the charges, saying she was kidnapped and brought to Russia.

Former Maryland Governor and possible Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley said on Tuesday he will not seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Barbara Mikulski. O'Malley, who left office in January and has said he is considering a run for the White House, told reporters in an email he hoped other candidates would step up to represent the mid-Atlantic state, but "I will not be one of them." The move allows O'Malley, 52, to keep the door open for a potential presidential campaign. Despite winning two terms as governor in the heavily Democratic State, his future is somewhat complicated by his successor's surprise loss to a Republican in the November election. O'Malley is popular among Democrats and spent much of the last year actively campaigning for fellow liberals across the country, especially in New Hampshire and Iowa, the first two states with presidential nominating contests.

By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats scrambled on Tuesday to contain the fallout from revelations that their favored 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, may have violated the spirit of federal records laws by using her personal email for work while secretary of state. Her bypassing of official communications at the State Department fed a political narrative that Republicans want to use to damage Clinton, that the wife of former President Bill Clinton is obsessed with secrecy and has something to hide. The news appeared to catch the Clinton camp off guard as her inner circle discusses whether to accelerate the formation of a campaign organization to April or May instead of this summer, which would allow her team to have a faster, more robust response to the various charges thrown her way. Clinton was President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state from 2009 to early 2013.

By David Lawder and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives approved full fiscal-year funding for the U.S. domestic security agency on Tuesday, dealing a blow to conservative Republicans who had wanted the bill to include language blocking President Barack Obama's recent executive orders on immigration. The House, in a 257-167 vote, backed a Senate-passed funding bill stripped of any immigration provisions, ending a bitter fight that raised new questions about House Speaker John Boehner's ability to manage fractious conservatives and brought the agency within hours of a partial shutdown last week. Obama has said he will sign the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which spearheads domestic counterterrorism efforts. After weeks of drama, Boehner was ultimately left with few - if any - viable procedural options to keep the agency open while also satisfying conservatives who wanted the funding bill to block Obama's executive actions last year lifting the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented residents.

By Julia Edwards WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has concluded that the Ferguson, Missouri police department routinely engages in racially biased practices, a law enforcement official familiar with the department's findings said on Tuesday. The investigation into the police department began in August after the shooting of unarmed African-American teen Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson sparked national protests. Analysis of more than 35,000 pages of police records found that African-Americans make up 93 percent of arrests while accounting for only 67 percent of the population in Ferguson, the official said. African-Americans also made up most of incidents in which officers used force and all incidents where police dogs bit citizens, said the official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh a second major case targeting President Barack Obama's healthcare law on Wednesday when it considers a conservative challenge to tax subsidies critical to the measure's implementation. If a majority of the nine justices rules against the administration, up to 7.5 million people in at least 34 states would lose subsidies that help low- and moderate-income people afford private health insurance, unless Congress or the affected states act immediately. Such a ruling could also have a broader impact by deterring younger, healthier people from buying health insurance, which would lead to premiums rising for older, less healthy people who need healthcare most, said Rand Corporation economist Christine Eibner. The Democratic-backed law, narrowly passed by Congress over unified Republican opposition, aimed to help millions of Americans who lacked any health insurance afford coverage.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prison officials were indecisive about whether to proceed with a cloudy lethal injection drug, at one point saying they weren't sure whether they checked "this week's or last week's" batch, according to court documents.

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but the odds are still against sealing a final agreement, U.S. President Barack Obama told Reuters on Monday. Interviewed at the White House, Obama moved to dial back tensions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on Tuesday opposing the Iran deal, saying it was a distraction that would not be "permanently destructive" to U.S. Israeli ties. Talks between major powers and Iran to restrict Tehran's nuclear capabilities in exchange for an easing of sanctions have reached a critical stage ahead of an end of March deadline for a framework deal and a June 30 date for a final agreement.

Ebola survivor Nina Pham on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Dallas hospital where she contracted the deadly virus. Pham alleges that Texas Health Resources was ill prepared to treat Ebola cases and used her as a PR pawn to help heal its reputation.

New revelations about the four plaintiffs fighting the Affordable Care Act may put their case on shaky ground and dramatically shift the course of the case Wednesday, when the Supreme Court will hear both sides present their arguments for the first time.

By Steve Gorman and Daina Beth Solomon LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles police officers shot and killed a homeless skid-row robbery suspect who grabbed at an officer's gun during a scuffle as they tried to subdue him in a confrontation captured on video, police said on Monday. The man, known by the street name Africa, had been living for weeks in a tent outside the Union Rescue Mission building where Sunday's shooting occurred and had a history of violent, erratic behavior, the mission's director said. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck identified the man as a robbery suspect who fought with officers when they tried to take him into custody, then kept resisting as they tried to subdue him with a stun gun. Bystander video of the incident shows the man swinging his arms wildly at a group of policemen before he is knocked to the pavement, and four officers struggle to restrain him.